


I Love You So

by KidNyx



Category: Backstreet Boys
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 07:27:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13712832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KidNyx/pseuds/KidNyx
Summary: While on break from the studio and with his wife away to do a whole-day-seminar, all-grown-up 'little' Nicky is the man of the house with all the dad duties and errands. To make his responsibilities feel a little less heavier, he decides to spend the day with the man he's always treated as his big brother.





	I Love You So

“All right, Odiiin…” Nick cooed to his baby boy, who was sitting in his high chair, bits of cheesy eggs speckled on his rosy cheeks and around the corners of his mouth. “Let’s finish your cheesy eggs.”

The 9-month-old innocently looked away from his father, seemingly distracted by the display of cartoons on their TV behind him.

“Oh come on bubbs,” Nick pleaded, pouting to his son even when he wasn’t looking. He had to admit, even after many months of being a father now, there were still certain facets to fatherhood he found some difficulty doing – but the best part was that he couldn’t even find the thinnest slice of impatience – he absolutely didn’t mind doing everything for his baby boy. “All right, do you wanna eat by yourself? Huh?” He asked, still sweetly, putting his bowl of cheesy eggs on Odin’s mini-table.

When Odin looked back at Nick, he had this pure smile on his face, displaying all the teeth that he had grown out this day, melting Nick’s heart. He took that as a yes and watched his son grab the spoon, digging into his bowl all by himself.

“Mommy’s working all day today. Don’t miss her too much okay?” He continued talking to Odin, tenderly caressing his small head of golden blonde hair. Odin kept messily shoving a spoonful of cheesy eggs into his mouth, his eyes on his food. “It’s gonna be dad-and-son-day today,” he whispered, gently cupping his boy’s face into his hands. The deepness of blue he found in his son’s eyes reflected the same oceanic color his own eyes had. It blew Nick’s mind just how much Odin looked like him. He softly laid a kiss on Odin’s forehead.

The doorbell suddenly rang, shaking Nick away from his awe. Odin’s head perked up from his bowl, looking all confused and curious.

“We got company today, bubbs,” Nick said to Odin excitedly, standing up. “Finish your eggs baby, I’ll just go get your very special visitor.”

Nick almost made a sprint to the door, where their pug Nacho had already been wagging his tail, anticipating the guest. He pulled the door open, revealing Kevin in his Beatles t-shirt and jeans.

“Hey young man,” Kevin greeted in the usual way he addressed Nick.

“Kevaaaan!” Nick exclaimed in genuine excitement, pronouncing Kevin’s name like it was French or something.

Originally, the two had planned to go out today for some bowling, a massage, and whatever stuff the two could possibly randomly come up with, but since Lauren had to attend to an urgent, sudden seminar, Kevin just decided to come over Nick’s house to spend time with both him and Odin.

He gave the older man a big brotherly bear hug, almost lifting his feet off the ground. When Nick put him down, Kevin looked at him like he was on drugs, his bushy brows meeting at the middle and almost making a unibrow.

“What?” Nick chuckled.

“Nick, why the heck are you in your underwear?” Kevin asked, failing to contain the laughter that’d been bubbling its way up his throat.

Nick looked down on his body, realizing what Kevin was talking about. Kevin continued to laugh soundlessly – how he usually laughed when the comedy in front of him was overwhelming. Nick started laughing, partly because of why Kevin was laughing, but mainly because of how Kevin was dying in his laughter.

“Dude, you walk up to your door and open it and I see you dressed like freaking Hulk Hogan.” He kept laughing and finally, stepped inside Nick’s house.

“Dude, like you haven’t seen me like this so many times.” Nick closed the door as soon as Kevin was inside. “And these are boxers!” he protested.

Kevin’s face spelled out disbelief. “Boxers? They’re too damn tight, your junk is all over the place!” His eyes were on Nick’s “junk” sticking out of his “boxers”.

“Tight boxer briefs,” Nick finalized. “Besides – “ Nick trailed off when they heard Odin crying from the living area. “Uh-oh.” He sprinted back to where he’d been feeding Odin. When he got there, the plastic bowl was upside down on the ground, the cheesy eggs spilled over the carpet.

“Oh no…” He looked over at Odin, who’d been crying now. “Okay bubba, it’s okay, it’s okay..” He knelt in front of Odin, trying to soothe him. “We’ll get you a new bowl of eggs okay? Shh…it’s okay…dada will just have to clean the mess up okay?” Nick began to fix the mess on the carpet, but Odin kept crying.

When Kevin walked into the living area, he couldn’t help but gush over at Odin. It’d been a while since he last saw Nick’s baby boy.

“Hey, little man.” He bent over to meet Odin’s eyes, who now surprisingly stopped crying at the sound of Kevin’s voice. Even with tears in his eyes, Kevin thought the kid was just precious – a hundred percent carbon copy of their own little Nicky. “It’s Uncle Kevin, buddy,” he continued talking to Odin. “You remember Uncle Kevin?” Kevin saw the corner of Odin’s mouth twitch up into a slight smile.

“Wow, he remembers you.” Nick stood up once he’d gathered all the bits of mess in his hands.

“I think he’s looking at my eyebrows!” Kevin exclaimed, not taking his eyes off the precious smiling face of Odin. This time, Odin already seemed to change back to a happy mood. The little blonde started raising his arms toward Kevin, which he found totally heartening.

“Oh you want me to carry you? Come to Uncle Kevin.” Odin willingly let Kevin pick him up in his arms, which was surprising since Odin normally became a bit aloof and moody around other people – he wouldn’t even give his dada a kiss at times. But then again, he’d met the Boys a couple times already, there must’ve been some sort of thing that felt family to him when he was with one of his dad’s bandmate brothers. “Laaahhhhehehehehhahhahahhahaha!!!!” Kevin began softly tickling Odin by wriggling his fingers to his tummy and did this repeatedly, to which the little boy laughed wholeheartedly.

Nick’s ear-to-ear smile was unmistakable as he watched the two. The joy of watching Kevin and Odin bond together truly melted his heart. To him, it was more than just the simple joy of having a “bandmate” play with his son.

To Nick, it felt like he’d made his big brother proud by doing the most special thing in his life – to bring Odin into this world and send joy to his loved ones’ hearts. It wasn’t any longer that he joined Kevin in playing with Odin. Standing close to Kevin, he rested his chin on the older man’s shoulder, looking at Odin and giving him all the baby-talk noises. The three were a beautiful boisterous piece altogether.

“You have a messy face, Odin,” Kevin said once their little hullabaloo stopped. He poked Odin’s nose with his forefinger.

“Yeah, we gotta clean you up, bubbs.”

Kevin looked at Nick, his expression falling somewhere between wonder and bursting into laughter. “You’re just as messy, dude.” He reached Nick’s blonde hair that was sticking out in various directions, removing bits of cheesy eggs. In Kevin’s head, he was wondering how on Earth the food got into Nick’s hair.

“I honestly don’t have a clue how I got cheesy eggs into my hair,” Nick suddenly said, chuckling to himself. Exactly Kevin’s point.

“Go get yourself cleaned up.” He playfully hit Nick’s stomach. “I’ll clean up your child.” Nick obeyed, immediately walking away to do what Kevin had just told him.

Kevin was amused by how, up to this day when his “little brother” was already a father, he still somehow felt as though he wanted to guide him in his every step. Sure, Nick was a wonderfully grown man now. He had seen Nick grow and learn from his mistakes, and trusted that maturity in him. But sometimes, he just couldn’t help but continue to provide that guidance he’d been so used to doing. It was kind of automatic every single time he was around Nick. Pretty much how they would around his other Backstreet baby brothers, Kevin’s big brother instincts would just always “lock and load” for little Nicky. It did seem to him that he would always play a big brother role in Nick’s life.

Kevin wouldn’t say so, but he truly just wanted to keep that role forever.

* * *

 

  
“Don’t step on the rocks, bubbs!” Nick shouted to Odin, who was now walking ahead of his dad and uncle. The trio were now making their way to the playground park.

“Look how fast he goes,” Kevin observed as he walked the grey marbled landscaped path side by side with Nick.

“Thank goodness his legs are now straightened,” Nick said, remembering the prior condition of Odin’s legs being bowed. “Our doctor was awesome.”

“You and Lauren did an awesome job, man.” Kevin just truly admired the tandem of Nick and Lauren as parents.

“Dadaaaaaa!” Odin squealed out one of the only few words he’d been able to pronounce now, catching the two’s attention. When they looked over, Odin was doing these squat-jump-like bounces in front of the slide.

Nick chuckled. “Look, he’s excited for the slide.” He immediately ran to Odin.

He began to carry his son up the ladder and atop the slide. “All right, bubbs. Go show Uncle Kevin your slide exhibition.” Nick ran to the end of the slide and waited for Odin to go down. “Uncle Kevin!” Nick called. “Odin’s gonna go down the slide, face first!”

Kevin walked up to them and waited with Nick for Odin to do his show. “Come on, buddy!” Kevin encouraged.

With a smile that very much resembled that of Nick’s, Odin slowly got down on his belly, spreading his limbs out little by little, positioning his face towards the slide.

“Go!” Dada and Uncle Kevin shouted in unison. Odin took this as cue and pushed himself down the slide, skimming down like mini-Superman – the joy so obvious on his innocent face.

“Yayyy, bubbs!” Nick exclaimed when Odin reached the end of the slide. He picked him up and tossed him in the air, catching him again. “Was that fun?” he asked his grinning child, kissing him multiple times on the cheek. “D’you see that, Uncle Kev – “ when they looked at Kevin, he’d been video-recording the whole scene on his phone, capturing the purely fun bonding of Nick and Odin.

“Great job, Odin!” Kevin said enthusiastically, still recording. “You’re in my Instagram story!”

Nick rolled his eyes, laughing. “Oh, of course Kev, of course!”

Odin went down the slide a couple more times, with Nick carrying him up and atop it, and Kevin catching him by the end of it.

* * *

  
The three finally took some downtime after playing for long. They all sat on the grass, watching other parents with their kids, enjoying the beautiful sun and the sweet space provided by their break from work.

The two men watched Odin within a few feet of them, sitting on the fresh green grass, playing with his monster truck toys.

“Wait, I need to put this on my story.” Nick grabbed his phone from his pocket and took a selfie of them three at the park. Him and Kevin on the sides of the frame – of course Kevin with his hand in peace sign – with Odin between them in the background. Deciding to upload the photo to his Instagram story later, Nick saved it first and then they both studied it for a while.

“It’s crazy. He looks so much just like you,” Kevin mused, leaning back and stretching out his legs, crossed by the ankles on the grass. “I can somehow see Lauren also, but like, he has your eyes and your hair and your smile.”

“Do you know one time, he saw a picture of us Backstreet, on the Vegas elevator doors, and pointed to your face calling you dada?” Nick remembered suddenly, bringing up the funny subject.

Kevin laughed. “He better not look like me, dawg.” Then they both shared a playful look of _Oh-shit-dude_ , mouth and eyes wide open.

“But yeah, he’s definitely a mini-Nick,” the younger man said, going back to Kevin’s comment, his arms folded above his propped up knees.

“Hopefully, he won’t grow up to be a slob in his teens like his dad was,” Kevin jested. When Nick gave him a death glare, he only laughed, mouth wide open and eyes squinted, not a solid sound coming out but only that of an airy huff.

Nick eventually shook his head, laughing along. “I wasn’t that big of a slob. Not like AJ was, at least,” he defended. Kevin raised a brow. “What? AJ was worse!”

“You two were contenders to Biggest Backstreet Slob. I think it was a tie.”

“Wow,” Nick expressed disbelief. “I swear I always followed when you or Brian or Howie told me to clean up my mess in our bunk. Remember when AJ and I left a mess of tissue rolls on our bus, and because AJ was nowhere to be found after our crime scene – ‘cause he probably went out to dye his hair – I used my own initiative and cleaned up the mess all by myself because I didn’t want to piss the three of you off. I did all the work while AJ was having fun!” he narrated with emotion.

Kevin looked above the sky, smiling, seemingly trying to think back. He thought what Nick said was valid. He had followed his instructions most of the time, if not all the time. He shrugged. “Well, that’s kinda true.”

“Of course!” Nick picked out a grass and started impishly thrusting it into Kevin’s ear.

“Hey!” Kevin shoved his hand away. “Crazy kid. You haven’t changed one bit.”

His little brother was all grown-up, but the kid inside him hadn’t died and was still alive. Truth be told, Kevin didn’t want that kid to die and wanted him up and alive and kicking for the rest of their days. At the back of his mind, or somewhere deep down in his heart, he loved being that figure that corrected his kid brother, making sure he was guided.

And seeing him a father now, Kevin couldn’t help but feel happy and proud of Nick.

“As long as I have you four old farts around, I’ll forever by your kid.”

Kevin smiled, letting out a sigh. “Remind me to thank Lauren later. I don’t think I’ve thanked her yet for marrying you and making sure we don’t have to let you annoy us anymore.”

Nick smiled, tight-lipped. “I never even thought in my wildest dreams, that I’d be mature enough and strong and ready to get married and make a family of my own,” he said, taking no notice of Kevin’s joke. “It’s crazy. All the bad stuff I went through, who would’ve thought this would be the ending of it all?” he said, pensively. “I was such a mess right from the beginning. And music, and Backstreet – you guys were the only positive light in my life, from the very start. Guiding me. Making me forget all the crap and leave them all behind while I really learn to live. And now I’ve been blessed with a beautiful woman to live with for the rest of my life – and that precious monkey butt, to nurture and to forever shower with love.”

Kevin now cast a thoughtful look on Nick, who had seemingly become lost in thought talking about the wonderful blessings he’d been given. In Kevin’s heart, this was one of the things he’d missed having with Nick. Aside from guiding him in situations Nick usually didn’t know how to control, he’d longed for these pep-talks with his baby brother. He loved hearing Nick talk openly like this.

“Hey Kev?” Nick suddenly said, his blue eyes now meeting Kevin’s own pensive gaze.

Kevin only raised his ‘caterpillar’ eyebrows, as Nick once used to call them, waiting for Nick’s next words.

“Thank you for always pushing me and guiding me. Into becoming a better man,” he said in a tender, low voice, meaning every word. Nick licked his lips, looking to down on the grass, and then back to Odin playing. “I don’t think I would have this angel right here if I failed to follow all the things you taught me.”

Tears were already welling up in Kevin’s eyes when Nick wasn’t looking. Truly, the sincerity of Nick’s words had sent a beautiful pinch to Kevin’s heart, melting it completely. He wondered if Nick had any idea just how proud he was of him.

It was best that he told him. “Nick, you’ve totally done all of this on your own. I’ve just been guiding you all the way. But it was all you.” Nick now looked back at Kevin. “You’ve made us all proud. You make me proud, young man.” Kevin tried wiping the corners of his eyes with his fingers, sniffing. Naturally, he would be all tearful in these special moments, but the Boys had been used to seeing him like this. Of course, Nick couldn’t help but let out a few teardrops whenever he saw his big brother tear up.

Nick and Kevin were normally the emotional ones in the group. But this time, Nick decided to laugh at Mr. Caterpillarman crying, just to lighten up the mood. “Oh geez Kev, no crying here, old man!” Nick jested, wiping away his own tears. “Hey bubba, Uncle Kevin is crying, look!” Odin looked at the two men, perhaps wondering why two grown-ass men are sitting on the grass with tears in their eyes.

Remembering the photo he’d saved earlier, Nick pulled out his phone again and went on Instagram to post it on his story.

Editing his selfie with Odin and Kevin, he started putting a text on it: _Dad-time-son-time with Uncle Kevin today!_

He dragged the text on top of their selfie photo, and started swiping on his phone several times looking for the perfect filter. Finally making up his mind on the Lagos filter, he studied the photo one last time, contemplating on whether he was ready to post it or to add a GIF or some emoji to it.

Instead, he decided to type a second caption.

 

_Missed having big bro around. Peace and love, old fart! @kevinscottrichardson_

 

He dragged the caption to the bottom of the photo.

He finally tapped upload and posted the photo, and it wasn’t any longer that it garnered dozens of views from the fans.

 

Nick wouldn’t always tell his big brother Kevin, but he loved him so. 

* * *

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. Here's my first work on here. What did you think? :D I know it's short and it's a one-shot, but I'm really interested in knowing what you awesome readers/writers think about this or if you have other comments. I'll most likely get motivation by getting comments from the amazing writers on this site. Hopefully I can write more stuff here!
> 
> I'd also love to talk to connect with everyone, please follow me on Twitter: @kidnyxx


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